A
report in today's newspaper outlines the IOC's toughening of the rules on what athletes can say, do, write, wear and generally think in terms of political dissent.
IOC president Jacques Rogge has said athletes have freedom of expression, as long as those expressions comply with the Olympic charter
What a load of bullshit!
So long as it complies with the Olympic charter.
So that means you can't voice your opinion about the Human Rights Violations in China, nor can you write a blog entry about the Tibet issue etc.
China has also announced new extraordinary powers to search and detain ANYONE, sure it's a communist country and this can happen anyway, but come on!
The reason why China was given the Olympics was to encourage the Communist regime to allow world wide focus to be placed on the issues to hopefully encourage change in the right direction.
Based on the heavy handed way the Chinese have dealt with the Torch Relay protesters and the way they have reacted to dissidents in their own country I would say so far this has not worked.
But what gets my blood boiling even more is when the Olympic Committee itself is tacitly approving the gag order and by therefore is turning a blind eye to the Human Rights abuses.
I am all for China having the Olympics, but having an official edict which prevents the athletes from expressing their views is disgusting.
If I was an Olympic athlete I would be boycotting the games
Labels: politics
